In this week’s Torah portion, Ya’akov meets Pharaoh. Pharaoh, astonished by Ya’akov’s old age, asks him how old he is. Ya’akov answers that he is 130 years old, and that his years were “few”. What?! 130 years are “few”?!
For Ya’akov, the main thing is the Redemption through Moshiach. He let Pharaoh know that he shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that Ya’akov and his family will be satisfied with settling in the best part of Egypt, because the main thing for them is the Redemption, and as long as they don’t have that, something is missing in their life, and they feel that their days are “few”. The only reason they were settling in Egypt for some time was to make the Redemption be on a higher level.
We should strengthen our belief and anticipation in the coming of Moshiach, so much so that as long as Moshiach hasn’t yet come in an actual and revealed way, our lives are missing something.
(See talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita, Mikeitz 5752 (1991))
